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Original fileAtalanta Fugiens - Emblem 2d
Michael Maier Atalanta Fugiens Emblem 10
About This Work
A woman stands in the center of the frame, her torso replaced by or encased in a large transparent sphere showing a child being breastfed. To her left, a goat stands over a seated infant, and to her right, a wolf lies on the ground nursing two babies. The background features a winding river, a castle, and a distant town under a cloudy sky.
This emblem from Michael Maier's 'Atalanta Fugiens' (1617) illustrates the alchemical concept of nourishing the 'Philosophical Child' or Mercury. By referencing the mythological upbringing of Jupiter by the goat Amalthea and Romulus and Remus by a she-wolf, Maier allegorizes the specific 'milks' or substances required to sustain the Great Work.